The one sector that continues to hold the most promise for economic development in the Pacific Islands after all these decades is tourism. For almost all island countries in the region it is either the biggest or the second biggest single revenue earner after remittances and certainly the biggest avenue for both direct and indirect employment.

If pristine beauty, remoteness and cultural exotica have been the traditional magnets that have attracted tourists from far and wide to island destinations, these have, over the years, been supplemented with the lure of adventure, sporting, ecology, luxury living and so much else in keeping with the changing profiles, tastes and interests of tourists.

Tourist interests and types have been highly stratified for some time now and it is only recently that most island nations have caught on to packaging holiday ideas for diverse tourist segments.

While littoral activities like snorkeling and surfing are common to almost all islands by virtue of their coral and oceanic geographies, some islands have now begun to concentrate and package their more unique aspects. Vanuatu for instance has begun to leverage its spectacular volcanic activity; Tonga its whale watching and Fiji its many niche tourism ideas spread across its islands.

Catering to niches, while being an excellent and highly lucrative draw card that can add tremendous value to a country’s overall tourism experience, it is also capital intensive and heavily dependent on expertise at various levels as also skills and experience of personnel directly involved in delivering the experience. 

This calls for a level of investment and expertise that is way above what traditional tourism enterprises have been used to in the Pacific Islands, mainly restricted to providing accommodation and food and beverage services. Islands based tourism sector entrepreneurs have few avenues to raise capital and hire expertise for more creative and specialised tourism projects, thereby undermining both the natural potential of the destinations and their own entrepreneurial potential.

Also, in the wake of heightened ecological concerns especially related to climate change, and in the case of the islands, concomitant sea level rise, all ideas of new development in any sector, tourism included, must embrace concepts of sustainability – which, indeed, brings the need for more specialised advice and the funds to pay for it.

This is where a body of experts comprising financial institutions experienced in the tourism sector as well as professionals with rich experience in setting up and running specialised, niche tourism projects can offer advice on building new projects on a turnkey basis and helping run them sustainably – and of course profitably.

And this is exactly what a conference called TIDES, an acronym for Tourism Investment and Development of Enterprise and Sustainability, intends to do this month.

The meet in Apia, Samoa (February 17-19) is organised by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and funded by the European Union, the Secretariat of the African Caribbean Pacific Group of States (ACP) and ProInvest, an initiative of the EU and ACP with the objective to promote investment and technology flows to enterprises operating within key sectors in the ACP countries of which Pacific Island nations form a part. ProInvest has a budget of €110 million over 7 years and is financed under the eighth European Development Fund.

Originally scheduled for the latter part of last year, TIDES was postponed to this month following the Pacific tsunami that devastated parts of Samoa.  PATA/ ProInvest has previously organised a couple of events in the region over the past few years and in the process gained experience in knowing both the needs of the region’s tourism sector and the potential for investment and lending its expertise. ProInvest has also been considering entrepreneurial proposals from several island countries.

Experts from a host of disciplines that have to do with the sector including finance, aviation, hospitality, environmental technology, infrastructure and construction, information and communication technology as well as other fields will attend the conference.

The region is at the cusp of a mini revolution in aviation with the arrival of the new generation of smaller regional jets that are economical to run with lower seat load factors. Also, their appearance in the region coincides with new trends within island governments top co-operate regionally on air services best exemplified by the ratification of PIASA (the Pacific Island Air Services Agreement) that will eventually lead to more open skies.

This will undoubtedly bring a whole new world of opportunities for Pacific Island tourism where it would become possible to island hop and experience more than one island destination in the course of one holiday because of convenient inter-island connectivity – something that is achieved today only by cruise ship passengers.

This will bring the need for tourism departments and entrepreneurs from several destination countries to come together and work toward homogenising standards, complementing their individual brands and co-operating in ways they have never done before. 

One session in the conference is dedicated to the challenges that this new sunrise idea will throw up and promises to be interesting. Titled “Five interrelated areas of activity critical to tourism in the South Pacific,” the session comprises speakers from the aviation, hospitality, cruise, marketing and branding businesses and is followed up by business to business sessions where entrepreneurs have the chance to meet potential collaborators and investors.

The conference also has a number of similarly interesting sessions that could prove valuable to the region’s tourism and ancillary industries. TIDES could not have come at a more opportune time with worldwide tourism interest in the Pacific Island region set to soar in the coming months for a number of reasons.

With the world emerging out of the recession, tourist arrivals from New Zealand and Australia, the region’s primary source markets, have already begun to improve. Interest in the region is bound to skyrocket from more non traditional markets following the Shanghai Expo between May and October this year where the Pacific Islands have a combined pavilion that will be among the largest at the expo.

Add to that the fact that China has added a number of Pacific Island nations to its preferred tourist destinations and what you have is the promise of ever growing tourist numbers as can already be seen by the increased number of flights between Asia and Pacific destinations over the past twelve months.

There is much potential for the region’s travel, tourism and related industry to benefit from a conference like TIDES not just in terms of knowledge and information but also in garnering investment and expertise.

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From Islands Business February 2010 issue